Share This Story!

Dems' campaign ads help Cuomo beat back Moreland mess

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rob Astorino has traveled to all corners of the state in recent weeks, trying desperately to call attention to questions surrounding alleged meddling by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office in an anti-corruption probe.

Dems' campaign ads help Cuomo beat back Moreland mess

ALBANY – Republican gubernatorial hopeful Rob Astorino has traveled to all corners of the state in recent weeks, trying desperately to call attention to questions surrounding alleged meddling by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office in an anti-corruption probe.

Since July 23, Astorino has held news conferences on the issue in Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Albany, Plattsburgh, Manhattan and Mineola, with more than a handful of radio interviews in between.

When New York voters turn on their televisions at the end of the night, however, it's quite possible they'll see something else: Slick, 30-second advertisements attacking Astorino on everything from his hiring practices to his $30,000-a-year consulting gig for a radio conglomerate.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino(Photo: AP file photo)

With Cuomo and his party amassing a massive monetary advantage over his Republican foe, Democrats have pounded Astorino with a wave of attack advertisements since the Westchester County executive jumped into the governor's race in March.

And as Astorino hammers Cuomo for his office's behind-the-scenes role in guiding the Moreland Commission — an anti-corruption panel Cuomo abruptly disbanded this year — Democrats continue to turn to paid television ads to offer a counter-narrative about Astorino.

The strategy of trying to paint a little-known, underfunded candidate in a negative light through advertising is hardly novel. It's been used repeatedly at the presidential level over the years, most recently in President Barack Obama's win over Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

"If your opponent is really not at all serious, you don't even want to attack them," said John Geer, a Vanderbilt University political science professor who has extensively analyzed negative campaign ads. "But if you fear or believe that the person is going to be a credible challenger, you want to be the one who sets the definition."

The strategy thus far for Cuomo and the state Democratic Committee, which Cuomo controls, has been twofold.

Cuomo's campaign — which as of mid-July had about $35 million in the bank — has spent about $4.8 million creating and airing advertisements since mid-January. The ads paid for specifically by the Cuomo campaign have painted the governor in a positive light: helping Superstorm Sandy victims and touting a program for boosting state contracts to businesses owned by veterans, for example.

The state Democratic Committee, meanwhile, spent nearly $2 million to an advertising firm from mid-January to mid-July. The committee's ads have relentlessly attacked Astorino, painting him as an "extreme conservative" and questioning his ethics.

Compare that to Astorino's spending: Just $308,530 for television advertisements since January, with much of that going to an advertising firm, according to state Board of Elections filings. As of mid-July, his campaign had $2.4 million on hand — exactly half of what Cuomo's campaign spent on advertising alone.

Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for Astorino's campaign, said Cuomo has done "nasty" ads since the beginning of the race.

"From the outset of this campaign, he has been airing the most nasty, untruthful attacks that have been labeled misleading by news organizations and even the chairman of the state Democratic party said they crossed the line," Proud said.

With Astorino unknown to most New York voters, the ads could be a voter's first impression of the first-time gubernatorial candidate.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College poll earlier this month found 54 percent of state voters did not know of Astorino or had no opinion of him, compared to 10 percent who weren't aware of Cuomo.

The poll showed Cuomo with a 35-percentage point lead over Astorino, similar to a Siena College poll released a week later.

"The calculation is that (Astorino) doesn't have a lot of money to define himself, so the Cuomo people are providing that courtesy of defining Astorino in ways that Cuomo people would have the voters see him," Marist pollster Lee Miringoff said. "It's very hard when you're outspent by a lot to not much, and when you're largely unknown."

The Westchester County Democratic Committee has gotten into the act, too, airing an ad in the county as Astorino traveled the state knocking Cuomo. Astorino, a former radio producer, gets outside income from a radio-consulting job, which he says doesn't conflict with his county executive role.

But in an ad from the Westchester County Democrats, a narrator says: "Why are you getting over $30,000 in outside money on top of your salary? How could you take money from a company you gave a contract worth millions?"

Another ad from the state Democratic Committee paints a similar picture: "It's petty, corrupt politics, and the taxpayers get the bill."

Peter Kauffman, a spokesman for Cuomo's campaign and the state Democratic Committee, said Astorino is "unknown to most voters and he has a bad habit of distorting his record to pander to audiences."

"His views are outside the mainstream of New York values and it's important that New Yorkers get to see the real Rob Astorino — ultraconservative, anti-women's equality agenda, and the prince of cronyism from the county with the highest property taxes in the nation," Kauffmann said.

Astorino, meanwhile, has produced an ad hammering Cuomo for his office's role in the Moreland Commission saga. The U.S. Attorney's Office is investigating the abrupt shutdown of the commission in March, and warned the Cuomo administration against tampering with any potential witnesses in its probe.

But his campaign hasn't yet been able to put it on air. A previous ad knocking Cuomo for the state's economic and business climate aired in the Buffalo market.

EarlierThis month, The New York Times published a lengthy report that found top Cuomo aide Larry Schwartz tried to curtail subpoenas from the Moreland Commission to Cuomo allies. Cuomo had vowed the commission would be independent.

On the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday, Astorino accused Cuomo of changing his position on the Moreland Commission's independence, saying New Yorkers have a "right to know … what this governor knew and what he's hiding."

Cuomo has acknowledged his office gave the anti-corruption panel advice, but has denied any "interference" with its probe.

"Since he has been exposed at the center of the worst corruption scandal in New York's history, it's now clear to everyone that you can't trust a word Andrew Cuomo says," said Proud, the Astorino spokeswoman.